Recently a lot of rich kids in my town have started shopping at the local thrift shop looking for cheap hipster clothes. I think this is wrong as thrift shops only have a limited amount of clothes and they should go to people who need them.

To me it seems like going to a thrift shop is like going to a food bank.

There is no used clothing shortage, as far as I can see. Our thrift has a back room piled with donated clothing to be sorted, priced and hung up. We are never going to be caught up, no matter how many “rich” people come in to shop. Used clothing, we has it.

And what’s more:

Well-off customers not only shop at our store, they donate. A lot. And they donate many items that less fortunate people don’t often buy, like pricey silverware and china sets, and valuable furniture and art. Hooray for that  and for the “rich” folks who buy them. They pay for a lot of cat food.

4 comments

As much as I roll my eyes at some hipster trends, I agree that going to a thrift store is not equivalent to scamming a food bank. (I say that as someone who used to do volunteer work at a food bank. Though at the one I worked at, the people coming in had to have pretty clear documentation of need, and some suburban kid trying to slum it with free beans and rice would get the stink-eye and directions to the Dollar Saver store pretty fast.)

If you want to ensure your donated clothes, and other items, go to those in need, there are plenty of great places to donate. We’re delighted to have the Lowell Wish Project (http://thewishproject.org/) just down the road from us.

Please save me from those who insist I must or must not buy what I want or don’t want from whoever they say I should or should not.

Also, isn’t Goodwill or somewhere opening “boutique” type stores to capitalize on the whole trend? I think I heard that – that the more upscaley brands were going to those stores, with concomitantly higher prices. So they’d presumably be able to make more money off the rich hipsters that way. Until the rich hipsters declare that Goodwill is trying too hard and they go off to yard sales or something new.